TellyCast: The content industry podcast

In the second part of our MIPCOM 2026 special, Justin Crosby talks to two studio leaders who come to the creator economy from opposite directions.
Tanya Cohen spent her career representing film stars and directors at WME and Range Media Partners. In April she left that business to become co-CEO of Made By Us Studios, the LA studio she runs with creator-economy pioneer Leanne Perice. She explains why she made the move, how Dentsu came to back the studio’s slate, and why she thinks advertisers are returning to the old model of underwriting content. 
Steve Hulford is founder and CEO of Toronto’s Underknown, which is marking its tenth anniversary. Its channels include What If, How to Survive, Aperture and Animal Logic, with 22 million YouTube subscribers between them. Steve explains why the studio’s creators are full-time staff, and what it was like to lose half its revenue overnight when Facebook shut down Watch pages. He describes the timing that kept What If off Discovery and National Geographic, and why YouTube is now the first stop. 
In this episode:
Creator Hollywood: putting legacy resources behind creator-led IP
Why brand-funded content is coming back
Creator ownership, live events and the IP flywheel
How creator deals put pressure on the SVOD model
Platform risk and spreading revenue across many sources
AI-assisted ideation, dubbing and generative VFX in a working studio
The Digital Content Forum takes place in London on 5 November. Entries for the Digital Video Awards open the same day.
Sign up for The Drop newsletter
www.Vuulr.com
Enrol on the TellyCast Digital Bootcamp
Buy tickets for the Digital Content Forum
Subscribe to the TellyCast YouTube channel for exclusive TV industry videos
Follow us on LinkedIn
Connect with Justin on LinkedIN
TellyCast videos on YouTube
TellyCast website
TellyCast insta
TellyCast Twitter
TellyCast TikTok

In the first of two TellyCast specials recorded in Cannes at MIPCOM 2026, Justin Crosby talks to the producers, studio founders and agency leaders working out where scripted, social video and brand-funded content meet.
Steven Moffat and Sue Vertue of Hartswood Films open the show with Number 10, their new Channel 4 comedy drama set behind the most famous door in Britain. They explain why Downing Street works as a workplace drama, why authentically British shows travel best internationally, and why Moffat sees micro drama as a real creative challenge. As he puts it, there is nothing special about the hour-long episode, which only came from the technology of the time. They also answer the inevitable Sherlock question.
Josh, Ben and Jamie from After Party Studios talk about life after the Sister acquisition. They discuss bringing the craft of Gangs of London and Black Doves to young audiences at social speed, the case for 15-minute episodic series on YouTube, the growth of their sports division, and what the Red Bull and Disney+ Max Verstappen vs 100 project shows about live, creator-led brand activations.
Kathy Boxall, Head of Entertainment at Dentsu, explains the agency’s title sponsorship of MIPCOM’s new BrandWorks strand and its 55-episode micro drama for P&G’s Native, which it describes as the first brand-funded full-length micro drama in the US. She shares Dentsu’s Gen Z research showing long viewing sessions on micro dramas, and makes the case for shoppable social video as the missing link between entertainment and proven sales.
Lucinda Hicks, Group CEO of Sister, closes the episode with the thinking behind the After Party deal, Sister’s minority investment in Common Interest Group, and the new Amol Rajan venture. She explains why the group is cautious about piling into micro drama, why it sees vertical scripted content more broadly, and why the next 12 months are about making the whole worth more than its parts.
Sign up for The Drop newsletter
www.Vuulr.com
Enrol on the TellyCast Digital Bootcamp
Buy tickets for the Digital Content Forum
Subscribe to the TellyCast YouTube channel for exclusive TV industry videos
Follow us on LinkedIn
Connect with Justin on LinkedIN
TellyCast videos on YouTube
TellyCast website
TellyCast insta
TellyCast Twitter
TellyCast TikTok

Lucy Smith left TV development two and a half years ago to launch Fawkes Digital. The company has just rebranded as Studio Fawkes. It has landed its first linear commission, with street-dating format Date Me Right Now heading to MTV. And Lucy says revenues have tripled in the last six months.
In this episode she explains why Studio Fawkes treats brands as broadcasters rather than "a money pot", and why she believes the old-school TV model is "totally dead and wildly unsustainable". She describes how a L'Oréal-sponsored podcast with creator Paige Lewin led to a haircare line that sold out almost instantly, with a 50/50 split on format and merchandise sales. She also explains why every Studio Fawkes idea starts with a long-tail commercial goal.
Sign up for The Drop newsletter
www.Vuulr.com
Enrol on the TellyCast Digital Bootcamp
Buy tickets for the Digital Content Forum
Subscribe to the TellyCast YouTube channel for exclusive TV industry videos
Follow us on LinkedIn
Connect with Justin on LinkedIN
TellyCast videos on YouTube
TellyCast website
TellyCast insta
TellyCast Twitter
TellyCast TikTok

Rob Rawlings spent 25 years in premium factual TV before co-founding Full Slate Media, a production studio and boutique agency working with creators, brands and digital publishers across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. His recent LinkedIn post asked whether UK indies have lost their nerve, and he joins Justin Crosby to make the case.
They discuss why the old commission-and-sell model is shrinking year on year, why so much post-Edinburgh talk about YouTube has not turned into investment, and how indies can use development budgets, existing shoots and in-house editors to build audiences and IP of their own. Rob also explains why creators now refer to TV as "legacy media", and why trained TV storytellers are better placed than most to succeed on YouTube.
Sign up for The Drop newsletter
www.Vuulr.com
Enrol on the TellyCast Digital Bootcamp
Buy tickets for the Digital Content Forum
Subscribe to the TellyCast YouTube channel for exclusive TV industry videos
Follow us on LinkedIn
Connect with Justin on LinkedIN
TellyCast videos on YouTube
TellyCast website
TellyCast insta
TellyCast Twitter
TellyCast TikTok

Our interview with former Top Gear boss Andy Wilman has passed 200,000 views on YouTube and around 400,000 elsewhere. Justin Crosby asks YouTube strategist Seb Losardo, who has helped grow John Nellis's channel from 600,000 to 16 million subscribers, to explain why, and how to repeat it.
Seb explains how to find outlier guests, why an AI-generated thumbnail beat our usual design in an A/B test, and why he tells creators not to be led by their most vocal fans. He sets out his 40/30/30 rule for dividing effort between packaging, the intro and the rest of the video, an approach that turns traditional TV workflow on its head.
The conversation also covers why preamble costs viewers, how gaps between sections cause audiences to drop off, how YouTube editing differs from TV, and why brands spending heavily on talent still end up with videos nobody watches.
Seb will be speaking at the Digital Content Forum on 5 November at BFI Southbank.
TellyCast is produced by Spirit Studios and recorded in London.
Sign up for The Drop newsletter
www.Vuulr.com
Enrol on the TellyCast Digital Bootcamp
Buy tickets for the Digital Content Forum
Subscribe to the TellyCast YouTube channel for exclusive TV industry videos
Follow us on LinkedIn
Connect with Justin on LinkedIN
TellyCast videos on YouTube
TellyCast website
TellyCast insta
TellyCast Twitter
TellyCast TikTok